Sox fans save big bucks by heading to Denver to see the World Series

Scott Langlois' wife Kerry told him to go ahead and try to get two World Series tickets to see the Red Sox play the Colorado Rockies this weekend in Denver.

Bleacher seats at Coors Field cost $65 each at face value compared to the average ticket agency price of $850 for a seat at Fenway Park for games six and seven, if they are played.

He didn't get away with spending only $65, but he ended up buying two bleacher seats for game four for $1,541 in an eBay auction. The game will be played tonight and Langlois will be there.

He still paid $500 to $1,000 less than he would've spent on a World Series ticket in Boston.

Langlois, of Somersworth, said some people may think he's crazy for spending so much money.

"I always say I'd rather regret doing something than regret not having done something," said Langlois, 43, who works as a full-time disc jockey.

Chuck Clement of Rochester fared even better.

He said he bought four lower-level seats at face value from the Colorado Rockies ticket office on Tuesday for about $250 each. Clement, his sister Meghan, their parents, Chuck Senior and Pat and Meghan's boyfriend, Josh Anderson, all of Rochester, plan to attend games three, four and five in Denver. Chuck Clement said Anderson will be able to go to some games because his mother may only want to go to one of the three games.

Clement said the family spent nearly $3,000 to buy the 12 tickets. He said they'll rent a townhouse in Denver for four days and bought round-trip airline tickets on JetBlue. The group planned to fly out of Boston Friday evening.

Meghan Clement said she's thrilled her brother was able to get the tickets.

"I'm like on cloud nine I'm so excited," she said.

They are among the many Red Sox fans who decided it would be easier and less expensive to see a World Series game in Colorado than in Boston.

The Rockies sold out of more than 50,000 tickets following their online sale on Tuesday.

StubHub Inc., an online ticket agency based in Boston, sold World Series tickets for games one and two at Fenway Park for $795 for bleacher seats to as much as $7,500 for infield box seats. The ticket agency sold similar seats at Coors Field for games three, four and five at sometimes nearly half price, from $400 to more than $5,000.

Red Sox fans fortunate enough to buy tickets directly from the Rockies on Tuesday were able to buy them for as little as $65 for bleachers seats to as much as $250 for infield box seats. When the Red Sox sold World Series tickets via a toll-free phone number on Oct. 15, the prices ranged from $80 for standing room to more than $2,000 for infield box seats.

StubHub is now selling seats for games six and seven at Fenway Park for $895 to more than $8,000.

Red Sox fans ultimately in many cases could spend less money for a roundtrip airline ticket to Denver, a hotel room and a World Series ticket combined than for just one ticket in Boston.

A round-trip flight from Manchester to Denver on Southwest Airlines for this weekend was $750. If a fan stayed at a hotel in Denver such as the Hampton Inn & Suites, they might be able to get a room for $130 a night if the hotel had rooms available. Even if the fan paid a scalper's price of $200 to $300 for a bleacher seat, the grand total would be $1,261.

Langlois said he's scheduled to fly to Denver this morning from Logan International Airport in Boston after he works at a wedding in Boston the night before. He'll stay with his sister, Judi, who lives in Golden, Colo., a Denver suburb.

His wife was able to provide him with round-trip airfare for $85 on Delta Air Lines after she cashed in some of her frequent-flyer miles, and Langlois said he hopes he can sell one of his tickets to recoup some of his money.

One potential customer may be Matthew Ayer, a former Barrington man. He lined up a free flight to Denver on Friday morning and a hotel room for the weekend. He decided to take his chances and see if he could buy World Series tickets to either game three on Saturday or game four on Sunday.

"I have all the money I need to spend on tickets," said Ayer, who now lives in Newburyport, Mass., and works as an aquatic biologist with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries.

Ayer said he'll have a tough task buying tickets for either game, but believes it's meant to be.

"It is just destiny that I am going," he said.

Ayer said his brother, Sam, and Sam's girlfriend planned to meet him when he arrived in Denver and the three were hoping to attend a game. Sam and his girlfriend stopped in Colorado during a cross-country trip.

Both brothers graduated from Dover High School.

The Rockies' front office and Denver businesses were preparing for an onslaught of Red Sox fans.

"Based on the Red Sox previous trip to Coors Field, I would expect a large contingent of Red Sox Nation to attend the games," wrote Jay Alves, a Rockies spokesman, in an e-mail to the newspaper.

Raquel Valdez, the front desk manager at the Hampton Inn & Suites in Denver, said the hotel's 62 rooms "are completely sold out." She added that she had at least 10 reservations from Red Sox fans from Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine on Wednesday who were scheduled to check in Friday afternoon.

Dan Dillard, a reporter who works at the Rockies' flagship radio station, 850 KOA-A.M. in Denver, said the city has become a baseball town for the first time since the Rockies' franchise was created in 1995.

Coors Stadium has 52,000 seats, 14,000 more than Fenway Park. But Dillard said the bleachers seats in center field and the upper-level outfield seats in right field, where many Red Sox fans may end up, are not that good.

He called the area "the Rockpile" and said it has "the worst seats in the house, for the record, because you're way, way up there," Dillard said. "The ones in right field are terrible."

Ayer said he doesn't care where he ends up sitting as long as he gets tickets.

"It would be fantastic," he said.

Robert M. Cook can be reached by calling 742-4455, ext. 5396 or via e-mail at bcookfosters.com.

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